Despite persistence of emotional and psychosocial impairments (Kornreich et al., 2001; Kornreich et al., 2002; Foisy et al., 2007; Maurage et al., 2008), recovery of these functions has been reported in relation to relapse rates. For example, Witkiewitz and Aracelliz (2009) found in a longitudinal study that negative affect such as depression and anger contributed to relapse risk. Also, Berking et al. (2011) found that deficits in emotion-regulation skills, especially the ability to tolerate negative emotions, predicted relapse three months after cognitive behavioral treatment for alcoholism. Impairments in decoding of emotional facial expressions are related to interpersonal problems (Kornreich et al., 2002) and may contribute to relapse risk. As such, social and interpersonal skills training for individuals in recovery have focused on the overestimation of intensity of emotions, and misattribution of negative emotions such as anger and fear have been developed as components of cognitive behavioral treatments in relapse prevention (for reviews, see Morgenstern and Longabaugh, 2000; Witkiewitz and Marlatt, 2004). Additionally, social-cognitive and emotional-processing factors may affect the recovery of alcoholic men and alcoholic women differently as gender differences
